Getting Started with Rust Systems Programming

Introduction to systems programming with Rust, focusing on safety and performance

• 11 min read
RustSystemsPerformance

Rust combines low-level control with high-level abstractions. Let’s explore its key features for systems programming.

Memory Safety

fn main() {
    // Ownership example
    let s1 = String::from("hello");
    let s2 = s1; // s1 is moved to s2
    
    // This would cause a compile error:
    // println!("{}", s1);
    
    println!("{}", s2); // Works fine
}

Concurrency Without Data Races

use std::thread;
use std::sync::mpsc;

fn main() {
    let (tx, rx) = mpsc::channel();
    
    thread::spawn(move || {
        tx.send("Hello from another thread!").unwrap();
    });
    
    println!("Received: {}", rx.recv().unwrap());
}

Zero-Cost Abstractions

#[derive(Debug)]
struct Point<T> {
    x: T,
    y: T,
}

impl<T> Point<T> {
    fn new(x: T, y: T) -> Self {
        Point { x, y }
    }
}

Key Benefits:

  1. Memory safety without garbage collection
  2. Concurrent programming without data races
  3. Zero-cost abstractions
  4. Modern tooling and package management